BEACOPP

In the last seven months, I’ve learned more about myself and life, than I’ve learned in the last twenty nine years. Cancer has been the biggest fight of my life, the biggest wake up call of my life, and the biggest teacher of my life. Here are a few things that cancer has taught me.. Miracles happen every day. Every freaking day. I’m a living example that miracles happen. In January, I had cancer in almost every organ in my…

Just like how no one really tells you what to expect during chemotherapy, no one really tells you what to expect during remission. Your friends and family think that being in remission means that cancer is now something of the past. Unfortunately once you are diagnosed with cancer, it’s never something of the past. Ever. In my opinion, remission has been at times, more difficult than the actual chemo itself, and cancer in general is just a complete mind f*ck.…

7 months. Where do I even begin? 7 months of intense chemotherapy, surgeries, radiation, hair loss, nausea, pain, meltdowns. It’s been one hell of a 7 months, and it’s so crazy to think that cancer took up the better part of my year. Over the weekend, I was working a conference in Palm Beach. I was sitting with my manager and two coworkers when my doctor called me to tell me that he had good news and that I was…

So this week was my first week back at work, after being on leave for 6 months with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I’m a pharmaceutical rep, so I promote prescription products to doctors, which is why I had to take a leave during my treatment..due to my weakened immune system. The week overall, was really great. My doctors were very receptive to my situation, etc. I kind of felt normal..for once. As normal as you can feel waiting in between scans to…

Around 6 months ago, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lymphoma. It was the most traumatic time of my entire life. I wasn’t in any support groups, I had no idea what to expect, and my cancer center didn’t give much advice. I had no idea about all of the crazy things that were happening to my mind and body. I spent almost 3 weeks in the hospital because my disease was so intense, and that’s where I began chemo.…

To talk about things lightly, 6 months ago, I entered Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center as a materialistic, superficial brat. I thought I was the queen of the world. Living in Miami, the city ended up consuming me, and I thought that owning expensive watches and designer bags was what defined me. I thought that what I looked like on the outside truly defined me. I thought which VIP list I would be on that night, or who’s yacht I was…

I become Neutropenic after every single chemo, so house arrest is way too much of a friend (or foe!) to me. The last two weeks, I’ve never been so bored in my entire life. So here’s a list of things that I did while on house arrest. Seriously, you have to keep yourself entertained. Scrap booking! I’ve been working on a scrap book of my entire cancer journey and it’s so awesome! I got a bunch of material from Michael’s…

Cancer is a very touchy subject. Unfortunately, you will never truly understand it, until it happens to you. This is why as a non-cancer patient, you have to tread lightly and be very careful about how you approach the subject, how you approach giving advice, especially if you’re talking about foods and therapy, because at the end of the day, you really have no idea what it’s like to be dealt our card. I’m not the same person that I…

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again, cancer helps you realize what’s truly important in your life. It’s sad that sometimes it takes a traumatic event in your life to help you realize things, but you realize them nonetheless. I’ve learned so many important things, and a lot of them revolve around the idea that your vibe attracts your tribe. It truly does. Before all of the cancer stuff, I was hanging out with so many of the…

So, I breezed through Cycle 5 of Esc. BEACOPP. I like to think that the less cancerous cells that we have in our body, the easier that the chemo becomes, but I’m probably totally making this up! I want to share with you guys a few basic tricks that helped me more so during this chemo, than any other! Obviously it helped to have my mom and one of my friends Chiara there, but here it goes! Before you go…